When Logan County’s Board of Commissioners met Thursday morning, the group had plenty of discussion topics to address before the end of the 2021 calendar year.
One of those discussion points was the possibility of a county-wide burn ban which would be in effect until Friday, Jan. 14.
Steven Haga, Logan County’s Emergency Manager, answered a couple of questions the commissioners had, clarifying the criteria for a burn ban to be implemented.
“For a County Commissioner to establish a county-wide burn ban, that would need to be a severe or extreme drought designated by the Forestry Department,” Haga said.
District 1 Commissioner, Marven Goodman, said he didn’t agree with the Forestry Service determining what counties warrant burn bans.
“I’ve kind of got a little bit of a problem with a federal agency telling the county what we can do and what we can’t do,” Goodman said. “It’s not a state agency. They don’t report to the government. It has nothing to do with common sense on what we should do for the protection of the people in our county for the public’s protection.”
The Commissioners discussed whether the rain on Wednesday would take the county out of the criteria to issue the burn ban. The City of Guthrie issued a burn ban earlier in the week.
Goodman said the county is going through “one of the driest periods that we’ve had in a while.”
Haga said eight out of 10 fire departments voted for a burn ban in Logan County. He said the county received an email stating they qualify for a burn ban if the commissioners choose to issue one.
The burn ban was approved at the meeting and is effective immediately.